


Robin and the Robins

by dedicatedfollower467



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Animals, Cute, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Gen, baby bird, robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-14
Updated: 2012-08-31
Packaged: 2017-11-28 02:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/669104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedicatedfollower467/pseuds/dedicatedfollower467
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian finds a downed robin - the bird kind. Will it survive?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Fanfiction.net for a prompt at dcu_memes

"Oh my gosh, what is that," says Stephanie, crowding forward, "Oh Em Gee, it's adorable!

Damian just glares at her and hunches his shoulders and moves away. "Nothing. Go away."

"Dami found a little bird out on patrol," says Dick, coming out of the showers. His hair is still wet, but he's got a pair of pants on. "Don't know what kind, though. The wing looks broken. You should've seen him – he found it halfway through patrol and went through the rest of the night sheltering it, while fighting off criminals. It was amazing."

"Shut up," Damian says, but he brings the little bird forward so that Steph can see it clearly. She squeals and immediately leans over the little ball of fluff. It's sort of brown and speckled, darker on the top, and it makes a small, high-pitched sound that has to have been made from distilled cuteness. Its right wing is held at a slightly awkward angle, looking broken.

"Oh my gosh, so cute!"

"What is?" asks Tim as he comes in. He's got his helmet off and peering curiously at the little bird in Damian's hand. Damian pulls his hand away slightly, but then lets Tim see.

"Damian caught a little bird while out on patrol," says Stephanie.

"Hm." Tim peers at the bird, and then he tilts his head back and starts to laugh. Dick and Stephanie look at him, and Damian gives him a death glare.

"What's so funny?" Damian says, hunching protectively over the little bird and pulling it away.

Tim switches from a laugh to an amused smile. "Nothing," he says, "You've just caught a juvenile robin, Robin."

There's a snort from the other side of the cave, and all four of them turn to look towards the sound. Dick grins very slightly.

"Why am I not surprised?" Jason says, pulling off his mask. "Baby Bird's got a baby bird. Let's see it."

Damian glares at Jason, but he doesn't pull away this time. "I've told you not to call me that, Todd, and if I hear you call me a baby again, you will be eating through a straw for the next three months."

"Just doing my civic duty as a big brother, Dame," he says, inspecting the bird. Tim leans away from him ever so slightly. Jason ignores the motion and instead looks down at the robin. "Yeah, looks like that wing is pretty much done for. You should've let nature take its course, kid. No way it'll ever fly with that kind of damage."

Stephanie has this horrified look on her face. "You mean, like, let some cat get to it? Are you kidding me? How can you say that about something that adorable?"

Jason just gives her a very level, dry look. "You can't possibly mean that, can you? You punch thugs senseless every night. You can't possibly be that innocent."

"Contrary to your example, Jason," Dick says, "Some vigilantes  _do_  have a heart for innocent little critters. I think it was sweet of Damian, and we'll be able to give it a good home, until its wing recovers."

Damian glares at Dick half-heartedly. "I'm not sweet," he insists, but no one is really paying attention to him.

"That thing will be dead by the end of the week," Jason declares, "I bet you fifty dollars."

"You're on," says Tim. Jason just rolls his eyes.

"You don't need fifty dollars, kid," he says, "You're practically a billionaire in your own right."

"So bet something else then," says Dick, "Come one Dami, Steph, let's see if Alfred can rustle up a shoebox and an old towel." He heads upstairs, tossing aside his towel and pulling on a shirt. The two both follow him, Stephanie cooing quietly and Damian still protectively cradling the bird.

Leaving Tim and Jason to stand there watching each other and calculating.

"Okay," says Tim finally, "How about I bet the use of the Redbird for a week and you bet the helicopter?"

"Deal," says Jason.

The handshake isn't so much a sign of good faith as it is a game of chicken.


	2. Momma Birds

They've got the little bird settled into a simple box with an old fluffy pink towel in it. Alfred has been instrumental in finding something comfortable to put it in. Dick has accused Damian of being an adorable mother hen several times already – despite this, he is still holding the box gingerly in his arms and peering down at his exhausted charge.

"No sabotage," says Tim as he comes up the stairs, Jason following right behind him, "You have to let fate decide."

"Kiddo, I won't need to resort to sabotage," says Jason, "All I have to do is wait."

Damian looks over at them. "If you so much as threaten Peep, Todd, I swear I will break your fingers."

Tim busts up laughing. "You're naming it Peep? Wow."

Tim is subjected to yet another death glare from Damian, but by this time, all of his big brothers are able to easily brush off the lowered eyebrows, narrowed eyes, and contracted pupils. Jason and Tim are barely able to control their laughter, so it's Dick who has to stick up for the youngest of the human Robins.

"Hey! Peep's a cute name," he says. "Besides, Stephanie's the one who came up with it, and it just stuck."

"You are going to be absolutely inconsolable when the thing dies, aren't you, Dickie bird?" Jason says, just as Stephanie comes back in the room carrying a bowl of what looks like mushed-up insect and an eyedropper.

"What the hell is that?" Jason says, and Dick smacks him on the back of the head.

"Language," Dick warns him. "Come on. Baby Bird's the youngest here, and he's got a fouler mouth than I have. Kid swears like a sailor." Dick just gives him a look of disappointment that quite clearly says, 'You're the older sibling here so you ought to act like it.'

Tim is wrinkling his nose in disgust at the foul-looking mash. "Steph, what is that?"

"Crushed cricket, mixed with a little water," Stephanie says, motioning for Damian to set the box down on the table. "Peep's got to keep his strength up if he's going to survive. Come here, Damian, let's see if we can get him to swallow a bit of this."

Jason and Tim watch incredulously as Stephanie sucks up a little bit of her concoction with the eyedropper, coaxes Peep to open his mouth, and then squirts it inside.

Jason's voice is horror tinged with nausea when he says, "You have the way tougher job in winning this bet, Timmy."

"Where did you even find crickets?" Tim asks.

"Alfred had a couple left in the freezer," Stephanie says, "After that time we nursed the bat back to health. You remember."

Dick laughs and crouches down next to the two of them. "Yep. Batty nearly got you more than once, right Jason?"

Jason mutters something under his breath that might have been, "Stupid bastard," but nobody bothers to comment on it. He watches as Stephanie forces another helping of cricket mash down the bird's throat, then stretches and turns.

"I'll leave you four to nurse dying birds and go get some shut-eye," he says, clomping up the stairs.


	3. Hot-Headed

Despite his certainty that Peep will die, Jason keeps going into Damian's room to check on the little thing, apparently interested in his recovery progress. It's beginning to make Damian extremely touchy, and this is not the first time Dick has had to fly down the hall to prevent a major battle between his two most hot-headed little brothers.

"Jeepers creepers, Dame, I was just  _looking_  at him for crying out loud."

"I've told you to stay out of my room, Todd, and if you set another foot in here again you will  _lose_  it!"

"Damian. Jason. Calm. Down." Dick orders in his best Batman voice, and they both instinctively shut up at the commanding tone. It doesn't take them long to figure out what he did, and they send him withering glances.

"Todd started it. He keeps leering over Peep."

"I told you, I just wanna see how he's doing."

"You want him  _dead,_  Todd!"

"Damian. Calm down," Dick says. He glances at Jason out of the corner of his eye as he continues, "Jason isn't going to try to hurt Peep. He wouldn't do that."

"Would so," Damian says, crossing his arms and glaring at Jason. Jason raises his arms sarcastically in a 'don't shoot' pose.

"Why on earth would I try to hurt it when it's obviously going to die anyway?" he says. Dick gives him a look, and Jason continues, "Look, Dame, I promise I won't hurt your little pet robin. I just want to look at it."

"It's Damian," the youngest brother says, "And  _only_  when I'm there to supervise you. You are not to set foot in my room without my permission. Are we clear?"

"Perfectly," says Jason, lowering his arms, " _Now_  can I look at the little ball of cat-food?"

Dick just sighs as another argument breaks out. He's doesn't know about Peep, but he's beginning to think  _he_  won't survive until the end of the week.


	4. Godfather

For some inexplicable reason, Dick and Damian are always out of the house when Stephanie comes around with a bowl of mashed insects and an eyedropper. Tim is beginning to suspect they have some kind of sixth sense about this. It's either that or Barbara warns them when she's about to drop by the manor to take care of her favorite patient.

Because neither Peep's "Daddy" nor his "Uncle" are around when "Mommy" shows up, Tim ends up dragged into the role of "Godfather" and has to help Stephanie feed him.

Tim always whispers sympathetically to the little guy when he peeps in protest as the eyedropper gets close. "I know what you mean, little fella, it looks like baby food, except worse."

"He's got to eat if he's going to keep up his strength. Now just hold him still, Tim, while he swallows."

Stephanie has figured out exactly how much food Peep needs a day and exactly when to feed him and exactly how much to feed him at each meal. When she's finished feeding Peep the whole bowl of mashed mealworms, she gives him a thorough inspection to see how his wing is coming along and whether he looks healthy.

"This wing is looking better and better every day, Peep," she says, "I think you're really going to make it."

"You'd better," Tim tells him, "I've bet the Redbird on you. You've gotta pull through for me."

Stephanie rolls her eyes. "He also wants you to get better because he cares about you, Peep, not just because he's got a bet on you." She gives Tim a 'you're-in-trouble' look. "You have to be supportive and positive, Tim, so that he feels like he's loved."

"I am being supportive," Tim says as he gently returns Peep to his little nest, "Besides, he's a bird. He isn't able to tell what we're saying."

"Well, he gets the gist of it." Stephanie spends some time bending and cooing over Peep, gently running her fingers over his bright plumage in a preening motion. Tim rolls his eyes and laughs at her.

"Whatever you say, Steph."

That's usually about when Damian returns to hover protectively over his baby, and Dick stands in the doorway and grins at the odd threesome that has developed around the helpless little thing.

But so-help-him-God Damian is going to learn to feed his "son."


	5. Bargains

Tim takes the stairs three at a time as he comes down to breakfast on the seventh day. Damian is right behind him, grinning triumphantly. The two look like they've just conquered the Roman Empire together without breaking a sweat.

"I win," Tim declares.

Dick looks up with a spoonful of cereal stuck in his mouth, and Jason just raises his eyebrows over his piece of toast. Then Dick breaks into a grin as Tim pours himself a bowl of cereal and Damian begins to toast a bagel. Jason just watches Tim nonchalantly.

"Says who?" Jason says.

"Says Damian and Peep," Tim says, "He's doing just fine. You were wrong."

"The bet isn't over yet," Jason says, taking a bite of his toast. "I have until midnight tonight."

"Jason," Dick says, "Don't speak with your mouth full."

"We never agreed on midnight," Tim says, "And anyways, it's not like Peep is suddenly going to sicken and die in the next eighteen hours."

Jason gestures with his knife. "You never know. People have taken a sudden turn for the worse in less time."

Damian glares at Jason as he spreads chive cream cheese on his bagel. "You just want an extra chance to kill him. Drake wins, you lose, now I don't have to worry about you murdering Peep."

There is a tense moment when all three brothers glare at each other over the kitchen table. Dick very quietly lays his spoon in his empty bowl, takes his dish and stands up to leave the table.

Three pairs of eyes to towards him, and he groans quietly in the back of his throat.

"You decide, Dick," says Tim, "Do I win?"

"No fair!" says Jason, "You're his favorite."

"Fine, let's take a vote," says Damian, "Two-to-one, Drake wins."

"Robin!" Dick bellows in the Batman voice, and all three immediately shut up. Then they all glare at each other.

" _I'm_  Robin," Damian says. Tim is about to say something when Dick interrupts.

"We've all be Robin at some point, okay?" Dick says. "Let's just work this thing out. Jason, I know you don't really want Peep dead. Just forfeit and let Tim win. I'll make it up to you."

Jason gives him a squint-eyed, penetrating look. "How?"

Dick wracks his brain for something to bribe Jason with. "I'll let you play Halo for an extra hour instead of kicking you off tonight."

"Two hours."

"Deal."

Jason nods decisively and looks over at Tim. "Just don't ruin the Redcopter, okay kid?" he says, "That thing's my baby."

Tim grins and pumps his fist, and Damian's face relaxes as he starts in on his bagel.

"So let's go see the miracle-bird, shall we?" Jason says, leaving his plate on the counter and starting up the stairs.

"Not without me!" Damian shouts, tearing after him.

Dick shares a look with Tim and sighs theatrically. Tim flashes him another grin and follows his brothers up the staircase.


	6. Happy Endings

There was one thing Jason was right about – the veterinarian says that Peep's wing has healed remarkably, but despite the recovery he's had, the little robin will never be able to fly very far. If they release him to the wild, he'll just be attacked and turned into a quick meal by the first predator that sees him. Naturally, this means that someone will have to take care of the bird for the rest of his life.

The birdcage seems to magically appear in Damian's room, but neither Stephanie nor the brothers are fooled. They know Bruce bought the cage, and Alfred helped him install it. Still, they let the two men have their little secret, and quickly install the little bird in his new home.

The next time Peep molts, the beginnings of his adult, red-breasted plumage start to appear.

And if Damian can sometimes be found sitting on his bedroom, working on his laptop, with Peep perched happily on his head and tweeting, well, the rest of the Robins will just make sure that they don't let him see them watching.


End file.
